Thursday, September 12, 2013
Translations Of Key Testimony Is Being Added To The Daily TJMK Reports Of The 2009 Trial
Posted by catnip
If you read PMF or TJMK regularly, you will know that our many Italian speakers have posted dozens of translations over the years.
Many were quickies of Italian reports of court or prison doings and the takes of Italian reporters and the public. Perhaps most worthwhile for you to check out are the very meticulous translations of court proceedings and rationales by the painstaking PMF team.
1) Key court documents
On PMF Clander has posted links to the largest and most important translation efforts with the covering intros and cautions that are vital to understand the difficult work involved and the possible need for small updates.
- 1) Judge Massei sentencing report in English: First-level Court - Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox.
2) Judge Giordano sentencing report in English: Supreme Court - Rudy Guede.
3) Judge Hellmann sentencing report in English: Second-level Court - Raffaele Sollecito and Amanda Knox.
4) Dott. Galati appeal to the Supreme Court in English: The Prosecution’s Appeal To The Supreme Court.
5) The Supreme Court of Cassation of Italy sentencing report in English: Supreme Court vs. AK & RS.
2) Reports from trial court sessions
Now we are adding more translations of the key testimony at the trial in 2009. All trial testimony will be closely examined by the appeal court in Florence. They are being attached to our daily reports posted at the time. You may find these three especially illuminating. Scroll down each post for each translation.
- 1) Daniele Moscatelli (scroll down), a police investigator from Rome who helped question Sollecito. Officer Moscastelli said that defendant Raffaele Sollecito looked “confused and nervous” during the questioning and that he was carrying a “long” knife in his pocket.
2) Fabio Astolfo (scroll down), an English speaking officer who helped question Knox. He also helped with food and drink from the vending machines, and observed Amanda hitting herself while on the way to get her fingerprints taken.
3) Oreste Volturno a chief inspector who took part in the search of Raffaele’s place; and investigated when and where the bleach found there was purchased, and investigated the 20 euro withdrawal reported on Meredith’s account, and tried to track down Raffaele’s school and police records; and also participated in the seizure of material from the Telenorba TV station after their broadcast had gone to air.
More such translations will follow.
Comments
Really great work Catnip. Dozens of small insights in there. They are going to be front and center in the Florence appeal coming up.
Its worth noting again that the Hellmann appeal only covered issues the defenses raised. The prosecution put on a terrific performance in 2009 and the impact of its presentations and summations was enormous on the 2009 jury.
But the 2011 jury never realised that.
Italian trial reporting to Italians has mostly been excellent throughout (which is why maybe 95% of Italians believe in RSs and AKs guilt) and their idea of “sensational” is a lot more restrained than in the US or UK.
Oggi (which will face charges) is the only one to go the other way.
Corriere and Sarzanini took this risk because the book seemed to shed significant insights into Knox’s state of mind and the exceptional nastiness of Chris Mellas. They were sued by the Knox forces and an award to Knox was made for invasion of privacy, but they appealed, and the award was reversed.
Well done Corrriere and Sarzanini.
We have really no complaints about the excellent Italian foreign press pool. Except for the notorious Peter Popham (who had a huge chip on his shoulder about the Papacy and Italy as a whole - he was yanked back to the UK) they have provided objective reports and done good if short summaries of proceedings and documents like those above.
There have been major attempts by the criminal enterprise that is the Knox-Mellas-Sollecito campaign to silence these objective media sources, and Bruce Fischer in particular has run a despicable smear campaign for which he is expected to pay.
But media outfits in the UK and US putting on crime shows and doing “documentaries” have almost always swallowed the PR line whole, and dont ever seem to know that these documents listed above exist.
Not one US or UK outfit other than PMF did even ONE major translation (or had Italian lawyers explain it for them in the original). And when they put on live crime shows, nobody in Italy is ever even contacted to get the views of the “other side”.
If there is a worse track record by the media on any other subject in recent years, it is hard to recall what it is. Certainly all prosecutors in the US are treated with respect - and kid gloves.
Nobody would ever post so many false claims about them - although some prosecutors really are politically motivated (many chief prosecutors are elected) or too ruthless in going for the kill.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 09/13/13 at 02:34 PM | #
Thank you very much catnip.
I found the links you gave very interesting. It is helpful to have reports in people’s own words and phrases. They’ve been translated well, giving a flavour of the Italian style.
Astolfo seemed to genuinely care about Amanda (seeing her in the corridor).
Posted by SeekingUnderstanding on 09/13/13 at 04:21 PM | #
These transcripts unfortunately show the “merit” of committing a murder along with someone else.
It doubles the number of defense lawyers cross-examining police witnesses in the court in one fell swoop.
It made the whole trial more “touchy” because prosecution and witnesses didnt appreciate this “double dip” and it meant that around half of all the prosecution’s allotted time was devoted to attempted rebuttal, in addition to rebuttals the defense put on in its own portion of the trial in autumn 2009.
That sure was a lot of rebutting. But it also led to a fair outcome where the jury gave a unanimous verdict.
Judge Massei did a lot (maybe too much) to assure that fairness. By “too much” I refer to Judge Massei’s blaming the absent Rudy Guede as the prime mover of the attack. Did he REALLY believe that?
Going easy on Knox and Sollecito like this without any firm proof opened the door to a lot of mischief by Hellmann and Zanetti and of course by the FOA.
We have posted lots of scenarios here on TJMK but not one ever had Guede initiating the attack.
Prosecution and Judge Micheli for sure didnt believe that. They all thought Knox was in some kind of spiralling rage; and Sollecito and Guede were the weaklings lusting after Knox who were foolish enough to join in.
In 2008 prosecution repeatedly hinted at the possibility of a lesser charge if Knox and the others would come clean; Guede took the opportunity, the other two not. Does Sollecito regret this? His book suggests he does.
These are our various scenarios here. http://www.truejustice.org/ee/index.php?/tjmk/C306/
Plus all the Powerpoints by Kermit, James Raper and others constitute scanarios of a kind..
Posted by Peter Quennell on 09/13/13 at 04:50 PM | #
Hi SeekingUnderstanding
I think its fair to say that everybody at the questura on the night of the interrogation had some sympathy for Knox. This post (at bottom) explains what happened on that night.
Knox was babbling on both in the interview room and in the corridor, and police were trying to calm her down. They all thought she’d accidentally got in over her head.
Nobody repeat nobody was hard on Knox that night. In fact as you’d expect of Italians they were all very kind.
Mignini and the cops wanted to move onto the business of arresting Patrick, but they patiently waited until Knox finally dried up which was about when the sun came up.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 09/13/13 at 05:03 PM | #
Here is where the interogation happened by the way. Perugia’s central police station (questura) where by chance Dr Mignini was the judicial duty officer for the night (it could easily have been someone else).
Sollecito tried to imply that it was some kind of airless ancient hellhole but in fact it is very modern and almost brand-new.
Knox was given refreshments from vending machines (they have great vending machines in Europe) and taken to the staff cafeteria. So she had plenty of opportunities to fuel up and could take toilet breaks any time she asked.
Sorry but there was no 30-40-50 hours of CIA-type interrogation with lots of yelling, or no lawyer, or no food and drink, or no bathroom breaks. All of that was made up.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 09/13/13 at 07:03 PM | #
Hearings: September 30; October 4, 23, 24; November 6, 7, 25, 26
Courtroom 32, president Alessandro Nencini.
Corriere di Firenze states that both defendants ask for new consultancies, but they do not take the stand.
Posted by ncountryside on 09/13/13 at 09:49 PM | #
@ncountryside
Thank you for the link. I think I may have got a tiny part of the the gist via Google translate,
otherwise it’s a bit of an enigma for someone not conversant with the language, never mind the Italian legal system.
One can only admire the way the Supreme Court is sticking to its guns despite the hysterical outrage and criminal behaviour of dumb low-lifes in the execrable and totally unsophisticated Knox entourage. But then we have to remember that however rotten a fish, it always rots from the head, and the Knox family will have a LOT of soul-searching to do at some stage, however much they try to worm their way out of it now…
Posted by Odysseus on 09/13/13 at 11:02 PM | #
Hi Odysseus
We are about to post. That may help. Cassation is of course not only not rolling over in the face of a few crazed diehards in the US, it is very much moving to put them in their place.
It can hardly be stressed enough how much the FOA chest thumping is a US phenomenon, neither known nor cared about by around 99% of the Italian population.
Nobody official in the US is influenced by them either. The point of continuing I guess is because it has become a cult. They will be muttering to their graves.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 09/13/13 at 11:36 PM | #
Thank You, catnip, for these translations from the trial testimony.
It was very interesting to read the actual court testimony of the witnesses ... especially the witness D’Astolto who stated that Knox kept hitting “herself” on the head.
Yet Knox still claims that SHE was “hit on the head” which is a lie ... Obviously, it was Knox who was hitting herself on the head.
Posted by MissMarple on 09/14/13 at 02:33 PM | #
I’m more than in awe of all the translators and their commitmment, I’m agog.
These trial testimonies are very interesting indeed. Thank you, thank you Catnip. 😊
Posted by bucketoftea on 09/18/13 at 06:14 PM | #
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.
Where next:
Click here to return to The Top Of The Front PageOr to next entry Lead Judge Is Now Confirmed And Court Dates Announced For The Florence Appeal
Or to previous entry In English, The Chieffi Supreme Court Rationale For Hellmann Annullment & Florence Repeat Appeal